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AGU: Geophysical Research Letters

 

Keywords

  • TS climatologies
  • Argo

Index Terms

  • Oceanography: General: Climate and interannual variability
  • Oceanography: Physical: Eddies and mesoscale processes
  • Oceanography: Physical: Instruments and techniques
  • Oceanography: General: Ocean observing systems
  • Oceanography: General: Remote sensing and electromagnetic processes

Abstract

Estimating ocean climatologies for short periods: A simple technique for removing the effect of eddies from temperature and salinity profiles

S. Higginson

Department of Oceanography, Dalhousie University, Halifax, Nova Scotia, Canada

K. R. Thompson

Department of Oceanography, Dalhousie University, Halifax, Nova Scotia, Canada

Y. Liu

Department of Oceanography, Dalhousie University, Halifax, Nova Scotia, Canada

Existing temperature and salinity ocean climatologies are usually mean fields based on observations collected over many decades. Because of low frequency variability of major features such as the Gulf Stream it is often more appropriate to define the mean for shorter periods, but there are subsequently fewer observations and more problems with aliasing of mesoscale variability. We present a method for removing eddy-related noise from observations using satellite altimeter sea surface height measurements. We demonstrate the technique using Argo observations from the northwest Atlantic and produce mean temperature and salinity fields for an eight year period. The reduction in variance achieved is quantified. Comparison with an existing climatology shows that there is good agreement between the two analyses but that the representation of the Gulf Stream is more realistic in the new climatology.

Received 18 June 2009; accepted 3 September 2009; published 3 October 2009.

Citation: Higginson, S., K. R. Thompson, and Y. Liu (2009), Estimating ocean climatologies for short periods: A simple technique for removing the effect of eddies from temperature and salinity profiles, Geophys. Res. Lett., 36, L19602, doi:10.1029/2009GL039647.

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